Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs

Ian Whybrow, Adrian Reynolds (illus)
Scholastic
Age 3-7

When Harry helps his Nan tidy her loft he finds a box full of dusty old dinosaurs. After a wash and a few repairs the dinosaurs become Harry’s special friends and travel everywhere with him, until one day he loses them. Will he find them again? This appealing story (with a happy ending!) is ideal for young dinosaur fanatics. The Harry and the Dinosaurs books have their own website and have inspired a TV series as well.

 

Share the story

Read aloud
Before you start reading the story look at the title page together and say the names of the dinosaurs (including Harry-o-saurus). What would your child be called if he or she were a dinosaur? For example ‘Jake-o-saurus’ or ‘Ellie-o-Saurus’. You could make up dinosaur names for the whole family!

Read the story aloud allowing time to talk about the pictures and what children think will happen next.

Join in
When you re-read the story encourage your to join in, for example with the places Harry takes his dinosaurs and perhaps their names as well. If your child has toy dinosaurs they might like to listen to the story too.

Talk about the book
Children will be able to relate to Harry’s feelings at different points in the story. You could talk about how Harry feels when he finds the dinosaurs and why he gets so cross with his sister after he loses them. Look at the pictures of the dinosaurs on the end papers together, talk about them, name and count them.

Watch the story

From Give us a Story

 Things to make and do

Play the story If you have some toy dinosaurs at home children can wash them and check whether they need mending just like Harry. Having a bath with the dinosaurs might be fun. Children may like to take them on an outing or to bed. If you don’t have toy dinosaurs you could use other toys instead.

Go to the library What would your child like to find out about dinosaurs? Have a trip to the library like Harry and try to find out something new eg which dinosaur was the biggest or what they ate. Alternatively you could use websites to find out information such as the ones below.

Make your own story Make your own dinosaur adventure. Encourage your child to arrange their dinosaurs (or other toy animals) in different places eg bath, garden, park and take photos of your child with them. You could print the photos so that children can stick them in a scrap book or you might like to make a digital Photostory of them. Children could compose captions for their photos, if they are beginning to write they could have a go at writing the captions themselves, or you could write for them.

Draw a picture Draw a picture of Harry and his dinosaurs, perhaps in the park or the garden. Click here for a template.

Find out more

See Andy’s dinosaur adventures on CBeebies here

More dinosaur websites here, here and here.